One dead in industrial accident at corn processing plant in Pekin

Hub Telegram: Rescue efforts turned to recovery soon after the accident that took place shortly before 11 a.m. at the plant at 1301 S. Front St., said Public Information Officer Mike Eeten.
The victim, reportedly a middle-aged Pekin man, was deceased by the time city firefighters and other rescue personnel responded, Eeten said.
The identity of the man, who worked for a firm contracted to dismantle the dryer, remained unannounced pending notification of family by the Tazewell County Coroner.

Eeten said the man was inside the dryer, which he described as a horizontally rotating cylinder “not quite as big as a (grain) silo,” when a large round piece of it fell from above. The piece, “larger than him,” was being dismantled from the dryer at the time, Eeten said.
The dryer had not been used for at least the past 10 years, he said.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will conduct a formal investigation of the accident, Eeten said. A preliminary police investigation determined that nothing criminal in nature was involved, he said.
While other workers were in the area of the accident, the victim was the only one inside the dryer when the accident took place, Eeten said.
The name of the firm contracted to dismantle the dryer was not available Monday afternoon.